Deadline
by Ghoulish Ghoul
Summary: The battle with Garlic Junior leads Piccolo to make an otherworldly discovery. His rivalry with Goku still burning in his mind, the Demon King is at a crossroad that could change the path of history forever...
1. Chapter 1: Dead Reckoning

_Age 761, April_

 _Desperate, Garlic Jr. opened the Dead Zone to conquer the united Goku, Kami, and Piccolo in one fell swoop. He quickly learned his mistake in not accounting for Goku's little son, Gohan, as the boy's raw power pushed him into the ungodly maw of the portal, shattering it with the ghoul sealed inside._

 _Forgetful of what he just accomplished, the promising Gohan goes home with his dad, leaving the Demon King, Piccolo, alone among the ruins..._

 **Chapter 1: Dead Reckoning  
**

A gentle breeze washed over the green man's shoulder, an affirmation that the conflict was over, for now.

"Coward," he scoffed. "Turning tail before we could fight again." He winced in pain; the culprit being a sharp sensation in his upper right abdomen. With two fingers, he could feel sticky red blood clotting over a jagged scrape.

Frustrated, Piccolo thrust his arm at the last remaining arched structure in the distance, a transparent, white ray of his ki arcing towards it before they collided. It crumbled into nothing but stone shrapnel, utterly no match for the might of the Demon King.

"Look at that, Garlic. You're gone without a trace."

He turned around in a confident stride, ready to put the nausea of partnering with Goku behind him, when something made him uneasy. It wasn't another injury, but something out there, something he saw. And, perhaps most troubling, the tiny scent of ki he could feel around the same area. It was nothing like Garlic's forces, or, really, anything he'd ever seen in either of his two lifetimes.

For a moment, Piccolo just stared at his point of interest, waiting on the smoke to clear so he could see just what it was that caught so much of his attention. Then, with a quick hop, he broke into a flight toward it. The smoke wisped away into plain air at his presence.

As his feet touched the ground, what he sensed became clear. The shape of it seemed alien; vaguely like the architecture of Garlic's palace, dark and angular.

"There's no way this was here before." Piccolo felt the ground in his right palm, then dusted away a few piles of sand clotting around the structure. "Garlic probably unearthed it when he opened the vortex. But how long was it here before then?"

His outstretched hand was met with a sudden _hiss_ as he tapped the front of the structure, a green glow revealing many runic symbols adorning it. Limpness then washed over his legs; with a startled shout, Piccolo was dropping down a pitch black tunnel.

 _THUD._ Luckily for his pride, the Demon King landed clean on his feet, huffing to regain his composure.

He brought up his hand, forming a sort of lantern by collecting a blaze of ki in his palm. Through the dust, he spotted all kinds of crude, junky technology and more alien structures around, unlike anything to be found on Earth.

His clomping footsteps kicked up dust clouds and occasional frightened bugs. Minutes of walking and feeling around failed to lead to any discoveries, yet he felt he was getting closer to whatever that was he sensed.

Just after passing a strange symbol scratched in the floor reminding him of a letter "X," Piccolo spotted a heavy shutter door, fastened by an iron chain linked to the floor. Rubbing his hands together, he grasped the shutter, melting a suitable walkway through it with the hot glowing ki collected in his hands.

"Eh, nice try," he joked with a smirk. A purple light blinked faintly at the end of this new room. The ki he picked up was right there, calling to him.

As Piccolo stridently walked through the room, exalted by yet more sparks, glowing lights, and noises of heavy machinery. The demon's eyes finally picked up their prize: a capsule. The stainless steel tube would have seemed measly to most, but the undeniable power within made it priceless to Piccolo.

He held it in his hands. Further examination revealed the same X symbol he spotted before, white and immortalized into the front of the tube.

"What are you."

A twist and a pop released an icy mist. He turned it over, rolling out the contents into his palm: a fruit. The demon did a double-take and moved in for a closer look. Suddenly, a migraine shot through his head, his vision grew fuzzy, and a powerful hallucination overtook Piccolo's mind.

It played like a horrific movie, he was not a part of it, only watching. It was all blood red, scratchy, grainy as a damaged old film.

He saw so much: a repeat of his humiliation twice at the hands of Goku, his ultimate new technique failing in the future, himself discarding the fruit as his own body became dust and went the way of the wind, Goku doing battle not with him, but another slug-like demon, and finally, a man just like Goku with dark eyes, smirking, before he finally came to.

Piccolo shook in terror, as he simply glared at what he had found. Raising his other hand to wipe the sweat off his brow, all he could do was stop and contemplate everything he had born witness to.

Time passed. No new visions came, but Piccolo continued to grasp the spiky orange fruit, silent.

Yet more time passed; now he sat in his usual meditation stance, perhaps to hide his uneasiness from nobody.

Soon, Piccolo stood again, raising first one, then the other fist, weighing each of his paths, all in a far slower and more methodical way than the usual person would have the patience to do.

* * *

Above ground, the gold of a sunset finally gave way to dusk. Great silver boulders trembled, crumbled, fell into the trenches being torn by an unspeakable force beneath the crust.

The concurrent explosion would have sliced the eardrums of any one person standing anywhere in the void of its half-mile radius; the surrounding animals were all already dead by the white-hot smog, massive shrapnel, or the impact itself. From the deathly cloud emerged one figure, shroud in a black, sparking aura.

He smirked and cackled wildly, for reasons only he could ever be sure of. With a loud _whoosh_ Piccolo darted over the horizon. His true bounty was at hand.

Nearly frothy at the mouth, Piccolo could not focus on anything but what was ahead, bypassing endless miles of scenery. Quickly, the scene became still again. Piccolo dropped to the grass of a quiet plateau, glaring dead-eyed at the man in orange struggling to shove his little son behind his back to keep him safe.

The Demon King cracked a fanged smile. "I'm surprised. I'd have thought you'd be more prepared for this. Either way, you know how this ends, Goku. Let's enjoy it while you last."


	2. Chapter 2: Breaking Point

**Chapter 2: Breaking Point**

The audible whip of a front door opening followed by a feminine shriek was the greeting offered to the Demon King.

"Gohan, get in the house!" Chi-Chi's characteristic shrillness had usually teetered on excessive and overbearing, but not this time.

"Go with mommy, son," Goku said dryly without moving a muscle. His young son gulped and nodded, turning and running from the security of behind his father's legs to the tenderness of his mom's arms.

"How _dare_ you ignore me!" Piccolo's voice literally exploded around them, shattering their windows into powder and tearing cracks into the foundation. As a split-second stroke of luck, a chunk of the ceiling landed inches behind Chi-Chi as she tackled her son to save him from glass shards.

Goku gaped and ran to his family, throwing the debris over his shoulder. "Chi-Chi!" He grabbed her by the shoulder and forearm to check for injuries. As she looked to him, stupefied, he breathed a sigh of relief once it was clear she and Gohan were safe. Relief quickly turned to fury as he turned to confront his rival.

"Piccolo, you can come after me, but don't you touch my family!" He failed to care that he was talking to someone wielding the power to kill him with a shout.

"I don't give a damn about your family, Son," Piccolo bluntly said. "But whatever it takes for you to fight me at full power is fine by me. I'm guessing we'll be taking this somewhere no one can get hurt?" He put a hint of camp in that last phrase, mockingly.

"That sounds about right." The man in orange looked over his shoulder with a confident smile, meeting the anxious gaze of Chi-Chi. "Chi-Chi, don't worry about me. We've been through this before."

"I know," she said understandingly. "Just be careful, please?"

Grinning wider, Goku replied. "Like I can say no to you. Gohan, be good for mommy, okay?" He leapt to the sky out of a squat to meet a familiar companion. "Nimbus!"

The yellow cloud zoomed to its master, catching him gingerly as always.

"Still using that deprecated piece of junk," Piccolo muttered as he took off in a flight by his own power, dashing toward the horizon. As he followed suit, Goku ground his molars roughly. For the first time in his life, he knew he wouldn't be winning this battle.

* * *

One thud, then another marked the two opponents hitting their destination. The Break Wasteland, a quiet plain painted with a rare species of sea green grass and white stone spires. With minimal hiding spots nor any other nocturnal advantages, no animal would wander here at night.

As the Demon King stood intimidatingly, Goku hastily stretched and discarded his heavy gear into the grass, priming his muscles for the hell they would go through here.

'I feel stronger since the battle with Garlic, but it's not enough. Especially compared to whatever happened to Piccolo to make him like this.' He dipped into a martial artist's stance based on one of the Crane School's designs. It was made to be impenetrable; if he was going to stand a chance here, he couldn't afford to let Piccolo have the first strike.

The demon sucked his teeth before a yellow light flashed over him. When he emerged, his iconic white cape and turban adorned a fresh set of gi, same as it ever was, save for a bold Demon Clan kanji over the chest.

"I have no one to hide my identity from this time," he exclaimed. "It's only fitting you die by the symbol of King Piccolo!"

Goku winced. "Piccolo, I thought..." The words escaped him, yet the message was plain to see.

"Please. I'm no Tien Shinhan, nothing has changed!"

And like that, the demon phased out in a blur, emerging before Goku with a round kick at the a _crack_ his smooth boot met Goku's rugged knuckle, the force of the strike shooting up through his leg. Goku came back with a successful punch in the eye, leaving Piccolo reeling and open for the following knee in the stomach and kick to the collar bone. Each hit knocked the slug-man back a ways. Goku remained relentless in his barrage.

Piccolo, hopping to his side to gain back some leverage, fired twin eye beams ahead, illiciting a grunt from the dodging Goku as the razor-sharp ki left a clean cut in his hip. The demon dashed forward for a punch in the ribs, meeting instead with a forearm, a sign of another successful guard from Goku. Frustrated, he channeled a red ki blast through his temporally impotent fist. Goku evaporated in a _whoosh_ and, before Piccolo could counter-

" _Kamehameha!_ "

The blue beam crashed into his upper back, burning through the white cape and knocking the wind out of him. Two boots then crunched around his neck; in a back-flip motion, Goku piledrove the demon into the dirt with a subtle crunching noise, and leapt backwards, finishing with a swift haymaker. The two impacts fractured many of the approximate stone spires, leaving the ground littered with rocky debris.

A small smirk crossed the the Demon King's lips.

* * *

Gohan seemed terribly antsy. Since his father left, the boy had been checking the doors and out the windows for him to get back, what seemed like every two minutes. His mother was, understandably, at her wits end.

"Gohan, please just sit down. Everything is going to be fine, remember?" The boy just looked at her with a frown, then peeked through the window again.

"B-but mom, that guy was so scary! He looked just like those monsters who kidnapped me! Even daddy looked scared!" Chi-Chi sat up from packing their travel bags, and bit her lip under her fist. All of those early education programs might have made him too clever for his own good.

"Gohan, remember when daddy would tell you those bedtime stories he thought I didn't know about? Those ones about that big bad King Piccolo, when he won both times just by using his head?" The boy was now scooting onto the sofa next to her, where he sat and listened attentively. "That was the same bad guy just now. He's already met him two times, and do you remember what happened?"

"H-he won, with his head."

Chi-Chi nodded. "And that means you shouldn't worry about your dad, he can do it. It's our job to worry about you, honey, not yours to worry about us. So will you please just sit with me and help pack our stuff? Your grandpa will get here soon to take us with him to the mountains."

Gohan stuttered a bit and looked back out the window, which Chi-Chi tried to block by leaning forward.

"But mom, that guy looked different than how daddy said in the stories, his eyes were all purple and he had a shadow around him!"

His mother frowned. "It was probably just the night sky that made you think that, sweetie."

"No, h-he looked really bad, I could see him-"

"Gohan, don't tell me no! Now just forget about this whole thing and-"

"No! Daddy needs help, he's in trouble!" The boy fumbled his way off the couch and scurried past his mom, headed for the door.

* * *

Panting, Goku kicked off his rival's ribs.

'I hate going for such cheap shots, but it might be my only shot at holding my own here. Hell, if it weren't for that afterimage trick, this fight might have already been over.' He staggered and put pressure on the slice in his hip, now making a red stain in his gi.

"Not bad," Piccolo exclaimed, steadily rising to his feet out of the shallow crater. "Suppose I have another reason to be grateful for Garlic. Had it not been for him kicking you back into gear, you'd be too rusty for me to even consider fighting."

The man in orange huffed and feigned a smirk. "Hey, who said I was rusty? And what are you on about "another reason" to thank Garlic?"

Piccolo grinned back evilly. "Have patience. You'll be the first to know."

In a titanic burst, his purple aura erupted, violently shaking the ground and shoving Goku backward. As he sensed the full magnitude of Piccolo's ki, the warrior's blood ran cold.

"I knew it," Goku declared. "You were limiting your power to what you were back at the tournament. I knew that your energy felt stronger back at my house."

Smugly, the demon nodded. "I wanted to know just how much you had improved. Frankly, I'm disappointed. I think I'll get over it once you're a red puddle in the grass."

Goku gulped loudly. 'I knew he'd be above me, but I couldn't have imagined it being by this much.' As he finished the thought, a left hook that sent him flying crashed into his chin, then four sudden axe kicks in the spine, the last launching him skyward. Powerless, Goku yelped as he felt a cold grip on his ankle.

* * *

Chi-Chi furiously stood up and lifted her rebellious boy off the ground.

"Gohan, stop it right now!" At this point, her son had turned to unintelligible babbling, until there was a mighty scream that knocked her flat on her ass. Gohan's cheeks had flustered a beet red, his hat was blown away, and pupils dilated. With hands wrapped up into little fists, he raced back to the door. After seconds of struggling to reach the knob, he let out another yell. Suddenly, the entire front of the house had been blasted apart, and a long ditch carved into the ground ahead.

Chi-Chi watched in horror as her feral son ran into the night, then zipped through the sky on the trail of his father.

* * *

A dark cackle cut the sky; Piccolo was enjoying himself spinning Goku around by the ankle at ungodly speeds. The orange-clad fighter felt a snarl in his stomach as motion sickness caught up with him. Before he knew it, he was tumbling to Earth by Piccolo's throw, and slammed into a solid rock spire.

The ancient rock tore like tissue paper against the impact of his body, then buried him and painted him in ugly bruises. Surrounded by darkness, Goku heaved and ignited his aura, exploding the debris into powder. He felt two ki signatures this time; jumping straight up, he narrowly dodged the hay-makers of not one, but two Piccolos.

'Tien's multi-form ability!?' The clones pierced the dust, in direct pursuit of him. Goku pulled off a hasty back-flip and launched a Kamehameha from one hand, that one Piccolo merely blocked. The other leapt overhead and, with a stretching noise, extended his arm several feet to stick Goku's head in his grip. As he cursed himself for forgetting the damn stretching technique, Goku was pulled up into a punch in the gut. His stomach lurched loudly; Piccolo cringed and dropped him back to Earth.

Landing sloppily on his feet, Goku keeled over and vomited in the grass. He winced. There were more than a few murky brown spots of bile and blood.

"Disgraceful. How the mighty have fallen." The Demon King's low voice burned in Goku's ears. Piccolo descended to face him, white and yellow energy collected in one palm. The orange-clad warrior built up another Kamehameha and prepared to fire. "This has been a long time coming, Goku!" Piccolo's hand thrust at his target, then he disappeared in a blur. Goku's eyes grew wide.

" _Makankosappo!_ "

Instinctively, the warrior launched the Kamehameha to his right side, giving him the push to roll right out of the way of the spiraling, purple beam that was intended to pierce his back by the real Piccolo. As the shredded remains of his vest scattered on the ground, fatigue robbed his ability to stand back up.

"To your credit," the demon remarked satirically, "you were better at dodging back attacks this time."

Goku looked down to his shoulder, where that deep, circular scar lie forever. Currently, though, it was difficult to discern from the smattering of bruises covering every inch of his body.

He wretched, covering his chin in thick blood. This was met with an orange boot on his throat, barely granting him enough air to even cough. "Piccolo, I just want to know. How did you get this strong?"

The Demon King cackled lowly. "I said I have Garlic to thank, remember? That Dead Zone vortex opened a secret passage beneath the Earth. In there, I found what I was owed. As soon as I felt it in my hands, I knew it was meant for me alone! And my mind has never been so clear since I feasted upon that fruit of the gods, Goku. I've lived in quiet mediocrity for five long years, how could the rightful lord of Earth be treated this way!"

There was a pause. "But I've talked for long enough. My question for you is..." Piccolo raised his foot tauntingly. "Where do we go from here? I-"

 _THUMM_

Without missing a beat, the demon reeled his forearm back behind his head, catching the explosive force of a headbutt. He slowly turned his head back; he was awed to see the young son of Goku still trying to ram through his block, tiny fists rapping at his green skin.

"You." The demon cracked an insidious grin. "Yes, I know you. The sniveling little son of Goku who single-handedly overpowered Garlic." Moving his foot away from Goku's neck back to the grass, he turned back to face Goku, the same horrid look still plastered on his face. "I wonder."

Goku's face turned white. "P-Piccolo, please."

Gohan, still in mid-air, shifted his gaze from the monster and onto his dad. As he gazed upon the broken, bloody man, his aura quietly faded away, and a look of shock washed over him. Gohan slumped to the ground, face-to-face with Piccolo's boot.

"I see how you work." Piccolo squatted down and looked him dead in the eyes. The fear he exuded was priceless. "Get angry and you're unstoppable. But any other time..." Swiftly, he brought a hand forward and finger-flicked the poor boy in the collarbone, sending him careening dozens of feet away. "You're worthless."

Goku became livid, hyperventilating through his teeth. "You... bastard! I told you to leave my family out of this, how _dare_ you!" His arms and legs convulsed, as if he tried to get up, but just fell short of the energy he needed. Audaciously, Piccolo ignored him, stridently trudging his way back to the child. As Goku drifted out of consciousness, hot tears in his eyes, he felt a new presence. A friend.

"Don't move, demon."

The slug-man stopped in his tracks, his smile disappearing at the realization of someone standing behind him. "Tien Shinhan. You've improved since the Budokai, not like it matters."

"I'll just cut to the chase, Piccolo. You know well of the Kikoho technique? What I have aimed at you is that same technique, perfected and made to utilize every last bit of my life force."

Piccolo sneered. "And just what do you plan on doing with that?"

"If you don't plan on leaving right now, I'll obliterate the both of us. Don't make the mistake of using an afterimage, I will see it."

The gears in Piccolo's head turned. He glared at the paralyzed yet breathing son of Goku, thoughts of the future moving through his mind. Then, he suppressed his power and rested his hands over the back of his head in surrender. "Well-played, triclops." He rose through the air steadily then darted over the horizon.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Happy Saturday, everyone, and thanks for all the feedback, favorites, follows, and reviews. This has been a lot of fun to write so far, and I'm glad people are enjoying it.

If you have any questions about the timeline right now, we're in April of Age 761. The arrival of Raditz took place in October of the same year, so you have an idea of where we are.

Enjoy Deadline, and I'll see you all next chapter. The theme for this arc is "Dear Zarathustra" from the DBZ Kai soundtrack.


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